The Red Trail
by wolf.of.the.forgiven95
Summary: Mezzik Nine-Lives doesn't believe in the Divines. What happens though when an unusual animal introduces him to three new beast folk races never before seen on Tamriel?


_**This is mainly just a preview of what's to come. Please review and give me advice on what you feel would be good ideas. Be brutally honest. All tips, constructive criticism, and likes/dislikes are welcome. But please don't just give me "I hated it," "You suck," or "I like this," "This was good," "Please do more." Giving these alone will not help me become a better writer. Thank you for reading this and enjoy the story :)**_

**The Red Trail**

Three days and no trace of my target. Three days and nights I have been searching for the Jarl of Falkreath's daughter and the trail was beginning to grow cold. There was almost nothing. I had heard the people of that particular province of Skyrim were master hunters and trackers, and I was a fool for not realizing that anyone who was even moderately proficient at tracking their prey could also cover their own trail. I had done it a few times myself when I had angered a few of the local Nord bandit and mercenary groups. Damn sellswords.

I sniffed the air for a trace of her scent. "Alduin's scales," I muttered to myself, the accent of the great desert nation of Elsweyr gracing my tongue, "I thought I had something." This contract was quickly turning into my hardest one to date. This girl had rarely ever seen the outside world and couldn't defend herself worth a mudcrab's shell, but she knew how to run. I was running almost blindly, trying to earn my next meal. It had been so long since I had eaten, and at this rate, with how little traces of her I have to go on in order to find her, the ten thousand septims might not be worth it. Khajiits were supposed to be the best hunters, and among my tribe, I was the best Khajiit, however, this was madness.

Only every few hours would something show and it was always small. A twig that was unnaturally snapped, small traces of removed sediment off of a rock, berries or roots being plucked from their bushes. That wasn't a lot. In fact, their was no way to even guarantee that she was the one who caused it. Normally it would be pretty obvious to a hunter of my level if the tracks were made by a human- because the way they interact tends to stick out from their clumsiness -but she moved in a way that almost didn't seem man or mer.

I sat down on a rock and buried my hands in the fur around my ears. Letting out an exasperated sigh, I said to myself, "What are you doing, Mezzik?" I felt pretty low. I was always looked up to as a leader, a hero even, because I was always the best at everything I did. Archery, sword fighting, hunting, tracking, running; you name it, I could do it. But this woman, a human, was messing with me like I was a newborn kitten, and that destroyed my spirit. My confidence. The elders of my tribe even thought I was born to be a great legend because I was one of the only Khajiit to ever have jet black fur and pure blue eyes. The greatest of feline chiefs had this appearance, but what would the elders say now if they say me getting beaten by a-

My ears perked up as something appeared from the bushes to my left. I quickly turned, pulling the knife from its sheath on my thigh, and tensed into a fighting stance, ready to defend myself against whatever may come. "Oh," I breathed when I knew what it was, "It's just a bunny."

Something seemed... off, though. It may still be freezing, but it was the dead of summer, when the days are longer and the sun is almost always in the sky. So why did this particular hare have white fur? My first thought that someone was watching me. The rabbit could have been released here by someone who had domesticated for the purpose of knowing they were in my potential situation- an ambush. My grip tightened on my steel dagger, but I allowed myself to be distracted by what I saw in front of me. The animal seemed to be doing some kind of... dance almost. It turned in circles and jumped back and forth when it faced me. It did this a few times, than what happened next made my heart rise.

The bunny raised it's head and I saw that its eyes were golden. This was a blessing from the Divine of Nature, Kyne herself. The goddess favored me.

Gods and divine intervention. I had never believed any of it to be true until now. How I knew that I was looking at an avatar of the spirit of Kynareth and not a mutated version of the animal I grew up hunting, I have no idea. I just had this... feeling. Whatever may have been going through my mind at this point, but I decided to follow it.

It must have known what I was thinking because it took off in the opposite direction, leaving me to sprint after it. One, two, five, ten, twenty; I lost track of how many miles I had run after this rabbit. A few times I had tried to break away from its path but I was immediately blocked off by a bear or a pack of wolves that would growl at me, then turn and walk away as if they did what they needed to do. This rabbit, Kyne or whatever, did not want me to stray from her trail. By the time it had stopped we were halfway to Riften. I doubled over and breathed heavily, trying to regain air into my lungs and oxygen to my blood so I could do whatever this thing needed me to do.

"Well would you look at this," I jumped at the deep and almost guttural voice, "A little kitten has come out to play." I turned around, my hunting knife already in my hand, but there was nothing there. Where had that voice come from? Come to think of it, what on Tamriel could possibly make a sound like that? It definitely wasn't human, but I couldn't tell if it was beast folk either.

"Ah," Came a threatening voice from somewhere. This one sounding like a mix between hissing and Tamrelian tongue, "Another piece to play our game. How convenient. Our master will most definitely be pleased."

I turned my head around and scanned the area. The river on my left after some trees, more trees that made a small, thin forest to my right. Where could these two be hiding where I couldn't see them? "Show yourselves cowards!" I shouted in the most intimidating voice I could manage."

I could feel something pulling my attention downward to the trail, and I turned to face the threat opposing me. It seemed like the air was taking a more visible form and circling around two man-sized presences in the middle of the trail and slowly they began to take form. I could see they were human and Khaj- no. No the one on the right was too big to be any regular Khajiit. This one had to be at least the height of a high elf and with the muscularity of a Nord or Redguard. The one on the left seemed different as well. The more his form began to show, the more I could tell that whatever he was, he was most obviously not human. The upper half of his body was one, sure, but his lower half... his lower half was the tail of a serpent.

"What do you think we should do with this one, Moh-Ehraba?" The snake hissed at his friend.

The other one was like a Khajiit, but very different. He was bigger, stronger, probably not faster but it wouldn't matter because I could tell he was a natural born sprinter that would have me over short distances. His face was fiercer than anything that could be found on Tamriel. His largest two fangs protruded out of his mouth to about his chin and the stripes over his body signified ferocity to me.

"Simple, Skual," He growled, then to a someone else: "Cheemai. Kill him."

The thought registered in my mind only quick enough to know what it was that he was saying, but not enough for me to think about running. Right after, in less than a fraction of a second, rope was around my neck. No... it wasn't rope. It was a furry tail, but unlike any of the beast folk on this continent had. There was a loud, high pitched shriek, and before I knew it, I was...

_**I'm going to continue this into another story, so if you liked it, you'll love what I have planned for the actual book.**_


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